


Seventeenth Time's the Charm

by mytimeconsumingsidehobby



Series: A Master of Death's Guide to the Multiverse [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, Gen, James Potter Lives, Lily Evans Potter Lives, Master of Death Harry Potter, Only took a few tries
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:06:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27275404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mytimeconsumingsidehobby/pseuds/mytimeconsumingsidehobby
Summary: He'd get it right this time for sure.
Series: A Master of Death's Guide to the Multiverse [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2176623
Comments: 9
Kudos: 203





	Seventeenth Time's the Charm

“I regret everything, you know.”

“So you’ve said,” Harry responded, not really paying attention.

“You couldn’t have at least made it somewhat interesting?”

Harry hmmed, having heard all of this before. At least a dozen times per lifetime, and it was really starting to add up.

“Do you realize how many universes are out there? Or even if you are so determined to stick to the same set, you could at least pick a different time. Or place. Or person to be.”

Harry continued mostly ignoring his companion as he made careful notes in a small blue notebook.

“Besides, you never let me have any fun.”

“And what would you like to be doing?”

“How about going through a _different_ universe for a change? There’s that lovely little bunch with the death obsessed raisin I was telling you about. I’m sure you would be extremely useful there.”

“Maybe next time,” Harry said, actually sort of meaning it. If this worked out he would be open to exploring other universes. He just really needed to get this one right.

“Time never has this problem,” was muttered just loud enough for Harry to hear.

“Time didn’t create a means of binding herself to a recently created immortal.”

“I was _bored_.”

“And you could think of nothing else to do besides create binding artifacts?”

Death muttered something unintelligible.

“Gryffindor,” Harry said, knowing that it had at least an eighty five percent chance of being a fitting retort to whatever thing he couldn’t hear Death saying.

“You are one too,” Death snarked back.

“Only in lives one and six,” Harry argued. “Not enough to make a majority. Besides, I thought you liked it better when I was in different house.”

Death sighed and flopped inelegantly on a sofa he conjured expressly for that purpose. He was dramatic like that. “Do you have any idea how challenging it is to keep those little… _things_ from dying prematurely?”

“That’s why we’re doing this again,” Harry said. “No premature deaths.”

“Fine,” Death grumbled. “What are we changing this time?”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

The first several years of Harry’s seventeenth life were fairly routine at this point. Make sure his parents don’t die, make sure Sirius doesn’t go to prison, make sure Pettigrew _does_ , and completely obliterate all traces of Voldemort from off the face of the earth.

Of course doing all this involved a fair bit of what would be considered “illegal” magic by anyone who managed to catch on to what was happening, but Harry had given up all pretext of dong things by someone else’s book at about life two, age fourteen. Besides, it wasn’t like anyone knew, so it wasn’t going to hurt them. Or him.

He had a happy childhood, as he tended to have in all lifetimes that weren’t a complete disaster (life two he was still gaining his bearings and all, and there was really no need to discuss lifetime number nine). What siblings he may or may not end up with tended to vary greatly from lifetime to lifetime, but in this one he had managed to end up with one brother and one sister. He wouldn’t mind having another sister, but apparently it wasn’t to be this time around.

At least he’d have Luna and Astoria at some point.

But now…

“Harry, your Uncle Mot is here,” his mother called out.

“On my way, mum,” he said cheerfully, putting his notebook away in his special, doesn’t-technically-exist-in-the-mortal-realm drawer.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

“So, how are is the wizarding world?”

“Your takeover by proxy is nearly complete, and we should be able to wrap it up by the end of summer.”

“Fantastic. I really was hoping to get it done before Hogwarts.”

“You mean you wanted _me_ to get it done before you leave for school.”

“Precisely.”

“Are you really going to stand for _another_ round at Hogwarts? You know practically everything taught there now.”

Harry shrugged. “I’ve never done fantastically well in the music classes.”

Death, er, Uncle Mot, looked at him with concern on his face. “Please tell me you’re not planning on singing. You wanted to prevent premature deaths, if you recall.”

Harry punched the amortal being in the arm. “Rude. I was thinking cello, actually.”

“And for the other classes?”

“Skilled prodigy?”

“Yes because that worked out so well in lives three through eight.”

“Hey, it’s difficult to not screw it up sometimes, and better to make it at least somewhat expected than a complete surprise.”

“I take it you are referring to life nine?”

Harry scowled. “Why must you always bring that one up?” He waved a hand. “Regardless, I’m going back to the prodigy bit. Besides, I have you I can credit for some of it. Everyone knows how skilled you are so it wouldn’t come as a complete surprise to most if you just so happened to have taught me a thing here or there.”

“The entire Hogwarts curriculum?” Death asked dryly.

“Well it’s not like I have to show off everything the first day.”

Death rolled his eyes. “Until something happens and you have to fix it.”

“Yes, but not the _first_ day,” Harry countered. “I ought to be able to wait until at least a week or two in.”

“You know if something does happen I’m going to get blamed for it, right?”

“No one will blame you, oh defeater of the super bad evil dark lord that everyone is still afraid of.”

Death shoved Harry a little. “Brat. Why do I keep having to be the one they think did it?”

“Because the only way I get credited is if my parents die, and that is not part of the plan.”

“You only tried that in life two, so you can’t really know for sure. Wizards will believe all sort of things. I’m sure you could have figured something out.”

“Too bad,” Harry said cheekily. “I guess I’ve just grown so accustomed to you being the public face of our little project.”

“ _Your_ little project,” Death muttered. “And can you really call this a face? It’s so… bland.”

“Red and gold eyes make people nervous,” Harry pointed out for the umpteenth time.

“My real face could make them nervous,” Death said, still muttering.

“Your real face is not in any way human looking and would undoubtedly scare them, but that’s not what we’re going for here, is it,” Harry said pointedly.

“No,” Death grumbled.

“Well then, there you have it.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Harry walked up cheerfully to the stool at the front of the Great Hall. He always enjoyed his little chats with the sorting hat.

“Hel… Oh. You’ve been here before. Many times in fa… Oh I see how it is.”

“Yes, yes, I’m back again. Anything you’d like to see in particular?”

“Show me the one where you took over Hogwarts. That looks interesting.”

Harry obliged, and pulled the memories of his seventh life to the forefront of his mind. He had perhaps gone a little overboard in that one, but Hogwarts had been an absolute dear in that one and they had gotten along quite splendidly.

About ten minutes later everyone was staring at them, and a lot of whispers could be heard throughout the hall.

Finally the hat seemed content with what he had seen. “Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating. Well, any requests?”

“Ravenclaw?”

“Are you sure? It would be fun to watch you take over Slytherin at least.”

“Mot’s got it covered,” Harry said. “I’m not going for any blatantly direct involvement this time.”

“I understand,” the hat said with a small sigh. “Then you’ll at least have to come visit me once in a while since you’re depriving me of my one other hope for entertainment. Enjoy your stay in RAVENCLAW.”

There were many cheers, most likely due in large part to the fact that his sorting at least was over and they could finally move on to the next one.

Most everyone else sorted as they typically did, with the exceptions of Padma Patil and Daphne Greengrass, who were now in the houses typically occupied by the other. There was always somebody.

After introducing himself to everyone, and hearing all their names in return, Harry proceeded to enjoy the first Hogwarts feast of this lifetime. No matter how many times he did this, it was always so nice to be here without everyone staring at him. In this world he wasn’t the Boy-Who-Lived or any such nonsense. Sure, he was the Master of Death now, but it’s not like anyone knew that. To them he was simply Harry Potter, oldest of the Potter children, and honorary nephew of Athanasius Mot, the famed defeater of Voldemort.

Alright, so maybe there was a small bit of notoriety, but since it was focused on Death, and not him, he didn’t particularly mind.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

True to his prediction, it took until the eleventh of September for something to happen that required him to showcase a bit of his skill and power. In terms of his overall power it really wasn’t that much, but in terms of an average eleven year old first year it was quite a bit.

Even a much more confident Neville was still an occasionally clumsy Neville, and Neville and flying weren’t really compatible words.

It also didn’t help that Harry had been in Herbology at the time, and so had to explain why he suddenly dashed out of the greenhouse and cast in the direction of the flying class.

He had also forgotten to pull out his wand, which didn’t help.

At least there was no Dumbledore to be suspicious or Snape to make caustic remarks.

Getting Dumbledore to retire to Bermuda and setting up Snape to work in Switzerland had turned out very well for him in past lives, and this was no exception. Both were happy, content, and not in any way interfering with his plans.

Unfortunately McGonagall required actual explanations for things, and “I felt someone was in danger” didn’t quite cut it with her.

And so now Harry was officially a “gifted” child or something. No one knew what to call his so called gift, but calling it a gift made it much easier for people to move on from attempting an explanation than the available alternatives.

So gifted it was.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Harry enjoyed making friends his first year, as always, but the downside was the same as ever. They were eleven. He was… not really eleven.

He hadn’t kept good track of the number of years he had spent in total, a failing he was now regretting, but he was positive he had at least passed a thousand.

It’s a little hard when all your friends are essentially babies.

Still, he was friendly with all of them, and tried to be helpful when and where he could, and by the end of the year he was on fairly good terms with every student in Hogwarts.

So maybe he had grown a _bit_ tired of being around eleven year olds all day every day and had branched out a bit. Those six years could make a difference, even to someone who had lived as long as he had.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Second year came, and with it, Luna Lovegood.

His little sister in every lifetime, who always knew who and what he was without his saying anything.

He couldn’t exactly go around telling people, “oh hey, I’m actually immortal and I’m just here trying to make sure you don’t all end up dead,” so he lived for the moments he could share with Luna where he could be a bit more himself.

In most lifetimes their friendship started long before Hogwarts, though it took some finagling to achieve. Mot came in handy, as always. This lifetime they had met when she was seven and he was eight, and by the time her mother’s accident came around it was a common enough sight to see them together.

A bit of accidental magic here, a little fudging of memories there, and Luna Lovegood entered Hogwarts with two parents still alive.

Being friends with Luna also brought him in closer proximity to the Weasleys and the Diggorys, which Harry made the most of.

Cedric Diggory had a terrible bit of Fate to overcome, since he managed to die (or at least nearly die) in every lifetime, and not even necessarily from the tournament. It was like someone really had it out for him. (Fate. Fate had it out for him. Harry was going to be absolutely clear on that).

Also, Bill Weasley. The other Weasleys too, but Bill especially, because Ron was great, but twelve, Ginny still managed to have a crush on him regardless of his lack of fame, the twins were enjoyable but exhausting, Percy didn’t care (until Harry got to Hogwarts), and Charlie spent way too much time talking to Harry’s dad about dragons.

Bill could manage a decent conversation though, and Mot liked him, so it worked out splendidly for all involved.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Third year was blissfully uneventful.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Fourth year people finally realized that someone had taken over the world.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Fifth year people realized that Athanasius Mot was not a dark lord and was not the one who had taken over.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Sixth year people realized that Mot wasn’t going to fight whoever took over the world.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Seventh year people stopped caring for the most part about who might have done the whole world takeover thing. Things were good, and when they weren’t, Harry and Mot fixed them.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Harry graduated. It was a lovely ceremony where Harry was recognized for his many achievements and record breaking academic accomplishments. Earning two masteries before the age of eighteen was rather impressive.

A week after graduation everyone realized who had taken over the world.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

“Harry, just to be clear, how long have you been planning this exactly?”

His dad looked very dad-like at the moment.

“September.”

His dad sighed, pinched the bridge of his nose, and asked, “in what year?”

His parents were intelligent people and Harry was so proud. “1980.”

“Do I want to know?”

“Probably not,” Harry answered honestly.

“Your Uncle Mot?”

“Claims I owe him a vacation.”

“Voldemort?”

“Well I wasn’t going to risk you both dying,” Harry said.

His dad stared at him for a moment. “You’re right, I don’t want to know.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

Harry lived a wonderful life. He had gotten everything right, and everything had gone according to plan. Finally. 

Except now he was “old” and it was a reasonable point at which to move on.

And he had promised Death he would at least consider trying something else out for a change, as Death had reminded him once a year for the last one hundred and thirty seven years.

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

“See, this one even has superheroes.”

“I’m over a thousand years old, Mot. I think I’m a bit past that stage.”

“But have you ever lived with superheroes? No.”

“What is it about this universe that you want me to visit so badly?”

“Remember that raisin I told you about?”

“The one that’s obsessed with you?”

“That’s the one. He’s, well…”

Death said something very quickly that Harry couldn’t make out. He replayed it in his mind at a slower speed, and then again a few more times just to make sure he had heard it right.

“He’s _flirting_ with you?” Harry asked incredulously. “Oh for the love of… _Fine_ , we’ll go.”

∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞∞

And so Harry went into another universe, destroyed Death’s little pest of a would-be suitor, and met someone as old as he was. It was a great eighteenth lifetime.


End file.
